


(you hit the) restart

by pinkmagnolias



Category: Incredibles (Pixar Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Author Is Sleep Deprived, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, POV Alternating, Post-Canon Fix-It, and when i first wrote this there was like one fic addressing it, author decided posting would be a good idea, completely forgetting all the work that goes into posting, i can't believe they just left tony without his memories, oh also jack-jack and the parents are really more background than actually there as characters, so i wrote my own and then did nothing with it for like a year and now i'm posting it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:01:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26692627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkmagnolias/pseuds/pinkmagnolias
Summary: “Hi, Tony,” a feminine voice says, and Tony turns to see a girl—vaguely familiar, pretty cute—smiling up at him hopefully.“Uhh, hi?” He offers, fiddling with his backpack strap to give his hands something to do as he flips desperately through his memory to try and recall the girl’s name. He comes up empty.The girl’s expression flattens for half a second before her smile returns, this time determined rather than hopeful. She sticks out her hand to shake. “I’m Violet Parr.”
Relationships: Violet Parr & Tony Rydinger, Violet Parr/Tony Rydinger
Comments: 4
Kudos: 82





	1. chapter 1

“Hi, Tony,” a feminine voice says, and Tony turns to see a girl—vaguely familiar, pretty cute—smiling up at him hopefully.

“Uhh, hi?” He offers, fiddling with his backpack strap to give his hands something to do as he flips desperately through his memory to try and recall the girl’s name. He comes up empty.

The girl’s expression flattens for half a second before her smile returns, this time determined rather than hopeful. She sticks out her hand to shake. “I’m Violet Parr.”

“I’m Tony,” he replies, smiling back at her and taking her hand. Then he cringes; she’d already said his name and he’d just told her it like she didn’t know.

Luckily Violet doesn’t seem to mind, laughing and saying, “Okay.” She settles next to him and strikes up a conversation.

Half an hour later, Tony opens up his phone to get her number and maybe a date (he might not be reading the signs right, but she seems interested, and he definitely is, so) and then jumps up when he sees the time.

“I’ve got to go,” he tells her apologetically. “It’s almost my shift at work and I’ve got to use the time I have to get there.”

“It’s fine,” Violet says, smiling understandingly. “Same time, same place, tomorrow?”

“Sure.” Tony grins, before turning and running.

* * *

Violet sighs as she texts her mom for a ride home. She’d hoped he would remember her, especially because it had been three months and she’s really wanted this one to stick, but also because she hadn’t actually taken her mask off this time.

_“Violet, watch Jack-Jack!” Mom called as she handed him off to her. Dash raced by before she could saddle him with the toddler._

_Though technically Jack-Jack had powers and he could be part of the team, neither he nor the rest of the Parrs were very good at controlling when he used them or which one he used, so he still got watched by someone while the rest of the family went out and heroed._

_“_ Violet _?” She turned to see Tony and held in a groan. “Violet Parr?”  
_

_“Um, no?” She squeaked out the lie, then cleared her throat and said more confidently, “You should get out of here; it’s dangerous.”  
_

_“But I’m looking for my girlfriend,” Tony joked, grinning at her. “I’m sure I saw her around here, and I’m concerned for her safety. We’ve got a date on Saturday and I’d hate for here to miss it.”  
_

_“Tony,” Violet said lowly, glancing around to see if anyone was listening in, but it didn’t look like it. “Please, you need to go. I’ll see you at school tomorrow, okay?”  
_

_“I want all the details then,” he told her, and she nodded.  
_

_“Don’t tell anyone about me, okay?”  
_

_Tony nodded his agreement, and she pushed him on his way with a small force field. He laughed and started walking off._

_“Good luck, Miss Superhero!” he called. She waved at him over her shoulder as she hurried to join the fight.  
_

She hadn’t actually told anyone this time, and so unless Tony had actually said something to someone, she should’ve been good. So why… _Jack-Jack_.

Her phone buzzes with a text saying her ride is in front, and she stomps down the school steps fuming.

Violet throws herself into her seat and sulks the whole ride home. She can’t actually _do_ anything to Jack-Jack, that’s the worst part. Never mind the fact that he has 20 odd powers, he’s just a toddler.

Once she gets home, she storms over to her dad and announces, “I _refuse_ to babysit Jack-Jack for the next ten times.”

“Why?” Her father looks up at her in confused concern. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

“That _snitch_ ,” —she throws an accusing finger towards Jack-Jack, who babbles his version of her name in response— “made Tony forget me again!”

He sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry. You can be part of the fight the next _five_ times, okay?”

“Eight,” Violet counters, “for the eight times Tony’s forgotten I exist.”

Her dad grimaces and nods. 

“Thank you,” Violet says, before flouncing upstairs to her room and shutting the door not quite forcefully enough to be considered a slam. She spends the next hour distracting herself from boy troubles with music.

* * *

Two days later, it’s Friday, and Tony’s texting Violet whenever he’s got a few seconds’ lull in serving.

They’ve fallen quickly into a comfortable friendship, and Tony is glad it’s so easy to talk to her. He wishes it was that easy to try to fit asking her on a date tomorrow into their current conversation. It’d be a little late notice, sure, but she’d mentioned something about being busy next weekend and he’s pretty sure she doesn’t have anything else going on tomorrow.

Their current topic is winding to a close and he takes the opportunity.

**Tony:** So um

 **Tony:** I’ve been wanting to ask you a question

 **Violet:** Yeah?

He can also see her looking at him expectantly, and he’s about to send the message when he’s handed a tray of food and pointed to a table.

He serves the people their food, smiling politely and taking the necessary time even as a part of him is antsy to ask Violet on a date before he chickens out or she gets offended by the amount of time he’s taking to ask.

Once he’s done with that table, he spends another 15 minutes going around taking orders and serving food before he gets enough respite to pull his phone back out quickly.

**Violet:** You there?

 **Tony:** Yeah, sorry

 **Tony:** Had in upswing in work

 **Tony:** Anyway I was wondering if maybe you’d go on a date with me tomorrow?

 **Tony:** I know it’s short notice but I though you said something about being busy next weekend, and there’s this movie that I think you’ll like playing—

 **Tony:** Okay hold on

There’s another upswing in customers, and it’s not until his shift is over that Tony can start texting again.

**Violet:** A date tomorrow sounds great :)

Tony sighs, relieved and pleased, and texts her the title. They confirm a time, and 20 minutes later Tony’s home and wondering how he get so lucky with this girl.

* * *

“So you broke up again, but you made up in time to go on your date?” Ann asks.

“Yeah.” Violet grins.

As far as her friends knew, she and Tony were dating and they just “broke up” every time he forgot her. Somehow this time around she’d gotten lucky enough to go on the same date they’d had planned before Tony guessed her identity. Just, as a “first” date rather than having gone out for three months.

“It beats me why you keep breaking up and getting back together,” Ann comments. “Like, you’ve been dating on and off for over a year now! And then every time you get back together you act like a new couple again.”

Violet shrugs. “That’s just the way we work, I guess.”

Ann shakes her head in bewilderment and lets out a fond sigh. “Whatever works for you, I suppose. Bye!” She jogs backwards a few steps and then turns and hurries to her bus.

“Bye!” Violet waves after her. She hears footsteps behind her and turns.

“Hey,” Tony greets her, grinning.

“Hey,” Violet grins back. Tony’s smile shifts to nervous and his hand tangles in his backpack strap. When there’s a pause, she prompts him, “What?”

“What?” He echoes, looking at her in confusion.

“It looked like you wanted to say something.”

“Oh, uh.” He fiddles with the strap for another moment before asking, “I just, uh— I was wondering, are we, like, dating now, or…?”

“Dating.” She lest out the breath she’d been holding. “Boyfriend and girlfriend?”

Tony nods, looking relieved. “Boyfriend and girlfriend.”

Before either of them can say anything else, someone bumps into Tony, who stumbles forward into Violet. Balance lost, she falls backwards and ends up on her butt and bright red in the face.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” the guy says, reaching down right at the same time Tony does, which knocks their heads together. “Sorry again—oh, hey, Tony.”

“Hi, Collin,” Tony replies. Collin is one of Tony’s friends on the football team, all of which had been introduced to Violet at some point, and she’d gotten to know them well enough to manage damage control when Tony forgot her.

“Hey, Violet.” Collin reaches down and helps her up.

“Hi, Collin. Thanks.” Violet dusts herself off. Nervous about things being accidentally said and messing up the careful balance of lies, she isn’t sure if her being there would help or hurt the situation. Her decision is made for her when her dad pulls up in front of the school.

“Bye, Tony! Bye, Collin!” She waves as she descends the school steps. She buckles her seat belt and prays neither will say the wrong thing.

* * *

Tony and Collin wave after Violet until the door of her car closes. Once it does, Collin elbows Tony and grins. “So how’d the date go?”

Tony turns to look at him in surprise. “I told you about our date?” He tries to think back, but he’d asked her the day before they went on the date, three days ago, and that didn’t leave a lot of time to talk about his new girlfriend before they went on the date.

“Yeah, you’ve been looking forward to it for a couple weeks now, haven’t you?” Collin asks, oblivious to Tony’s puzzlement. A new bus pulls up, and Collin tells him, “Oop, gotta go. Bye!”

“Bye?" Tony calls weakly after him. How could he have been looking forward to a date with Violet for a couple weeks when he’d only know her for one?

He pulls out his phone, not entirely sure what his plan to use it is, but startles when he sees the clock. There isn’t time to try and sort out his confusion now, not if he wants to get to work on time.

He stuffs his phone back into his pocket and hurries towards the bus stop.

* * *

Her phone buzzes, and Violet glances at the screen to see a text from Tony.

**Tony:** Are you free tomorrow afternoon?

A quick mental run through of her schedule says yes, and she texts him as such. Her stomach twists with nerves, wondering what Tony wants.

He isn’t very forthcoming with details, simply asking her to meet him in the band room after school the next day. Violet agrees and spends the rest of the time leading up to then worrying over what he wanted to meet with her about.

Finally, the end-of-school bell rings, and Violet dawdles while students flood outside all around her. Once the school is mostly empty, she hitches her backpack slightly higher up on her shoulders and makes her way to the band room, trying to ignore the growing feeling of dread.

Violet pushes the door open slowly, and Tony stands up from a stool. Her stomach swoops at the mixture of confusion, concern, and what looks unfortunately a bit like betrayal on his face.

“Sooo,” Tony says. “I think we need to talk.”

“Oh?” Violet asks, internally cringing at how high her voice rises. “What about?”

“Yesterday, after you left, Collin said something about me having looked forward to our date for weeks?” Violet cringes, knowing what’s coming and helpless to stop it. “And then later, he said we’ve apparently been dating for a year.” She risks a glance up at Tony’s face and immediately regrets it, but she can’t pull her gaze from his again. He looks like someone kicked his puppy, a combination of _why would you do that_ and hurt. “But I’ve only known you for a week?” He finishes softly, his eyes begging for an explanation.

She teeters between owning up and telling him everything or just bolting, but before she can stop herself she says, “I don’t know why Collin would lie like that.”

* * *

“I don’t know why Collin would lie like that,” Violet says. It’s a weak lie, and they both know it, but Violet doesn’t take it back, doesn’t do anything but stay frozen where she is, barely inside the door, looking like she’d been contemplating running ever since they started their conversation.

Tony hesitates, sighs, and tells her, “I like you, Violet.” Her breath hitches. “…But I just don’t think I can be with someone who won’t tell me the truth.” It hurts to say, but not as much as it hurts that she won’t just _explain_.

Violet sighs softly. “I understand,” she tells him, and then she tilts her head in a way that causes her hair to fall in front of her face, and gives him a sad smile, and she looks so incredibly _shy_. “See you around, Tony.” She slips out the door, and Tony sinks down onto the stool he’d been waiting for her on, wishing the encounter could’ve been less of a disaster.

* * *

A couple weeks pass, and wouldn’t it be just Violet’s luck if _this_ round was the one to stick, the one where she couldn’t give Tony an impossible explanation and they stay a broken up couple. Maybe it’s a sign.

“Have you two _still_ not made up yet?” Ann asks. “A fight so soon after the last one?”

“It’s more like we didn’t fully work out the last fight, and this is a continuation of it,” Violet explains sadly.

“I’m sure it’ll work out,” Ann tries to reassure her. “You’re such a rocky couple.”

“Yeah,” Violet sighs. “This time it really feels like it might be permanent though, y’know?” Ann frowns sympathetically and pulls her into a hug.

* * *

A few weeks pass since Tony broke up with Violet, and he can’t help but feel guilty when he sees her in the hallways. Sometimes, they meet each other’s eyes, and she gives him this regretful smile and he smiles back tightly at her, and maybe they’ll say hi, but that’s about it.

Then, another supervillain attacks—one Tony doesn’t quite catch the name of but he thinks it might be some sort of pun—and he runs across a superhero.

There’s this overwhelming feeling of deja vu as he takes in this super girl, but he can’t for the life of him remember meeting her before. She’s got sleek black hair, and the black domino mask on her face makes the blue of her eyes stand out in the glimpse of them he sees. She gives him a shy, sad smile, then seems to catch herself and makes it polite, and says, “You need to get out of the area.”

But Tony saw—he recognized that smile, and he’s sure his eyes are huge as he asks, tentatively, “Violet?”

She doesn’t seem to hear him, summoning a force field to push him and a few others out of the way, and then taking off towards the villain. He stares after her, stunning by this revelation, until his parents find him and drag him away from the fight.

* * *

That afternoon, Violet dithers in her bedroom. It’d be so selfish of her to tell her parents and have Tony’s memory taken from him, to take her second chance instead of earn it from him.

But on the other hand, that was what got her into the mess she was in, and she’d probably still be dating him if his memory hadn’t been erased. It’d be a do-over, just another tally on the list of times he’d forgotten her.

…that she’d have caused, this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is cross-posted on tumblr! if you wanna reblog and make me smile then here's a link
> 
> also!! have a specific way you want the next chapter to go? chapters 2 and 3 are parallels to each other, so you can choose which way you'd rather read, or read them both and then continue to the last chapter!


	2. chapter 2 (Tony Remembers)

The next day, Tony finds her after school and pulls her into an unoccupied room. 

“We should talk.”

“Last time you said that you broke up with me,” Violet says. “You can’t break up with me twice, Tony.” Her smile and tone are teasing, but her eyes dart around, wide and almost scared, scanning the room for something.

“Whatcha looking for?” Tony asks, faking casual, and her eyes snap to his.

“Nothing,” she squeaks. Her phone dings, and she whips it out, reading something on the screen. “My mom’s here. Bye, Tony!” She turns to go.

“Wait!” She looks back at him. “Is it connected? The—the superheroing, and the thing Collin said? About us dating for longer than a week?”

She looks at him for a long moment. Her gaze softens as she looks up at the ceiling and shakes her head. “You need to stop connecting dots so quickly,” she tells him, looking back at him with a small, fond smile.

“Sorry?” he offers. She grins more broadly, texting something quickly and leaning against a desk.

“I guess I do owe you an explanation.”

“I’m pretty sure you do.”

“It’s long,” Violet warns him.

“I’ve got time.”

Violet nods, and hops back to sit fully on the desk. “The first time you asked me out was about a year ago. We were at a track meet, me watching my brother and you doing I don’t know what.” And Tony remembers that, vaguely, though he doesn’t remember seeing Violet there. He opens his mouth to tell her that, but she holds up a finger. “Please do not interrupt the storytelling. There will be time for questions at the end. But yeah, we were both there, and then the meet ended, and my family was in the parking lot getting ready to leave when the Underminer appeared, so…”

* * *

“And about a month ago, you figured out who I was, and Jack-Jack snitched, and you forgot me. Again. And then you know the rest,” Violet finishes. She risks a glance at Tony, who’s gaping at her. She ducks her head and fiddles with her hair nervously.

“…Is there a way to undo it?” Her head shoots up to look back at Tony. She’s met with a half smile and an eager expression. “So I can remember you again? Well, remember everything about you I forgot, obviously I remember you right now, otherwise I wouldn’t know who I’m sitting here talking to aaaaand I’m rambling. But, is there?”

“I… don’t know,” she admits. “We can ask Dicker? But the whole reason the technology exists is to protect heroes’ identities. It wouldn’t seem exactly practical to create tech that could reverse it.”

“Can’t hurt to ask,” Tony points out.

“True.”

They smile at each other. Despite her low expectations, Violet finds herself feeling hopeful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next chapter is not actually the next part!! if you want to read the next part, skip to chapter 4! if you want to find out what would've happened if Tony had ended up forgetting her again, go ahead and click that Next Chapter button! if you want to reblog this and make me smile, you can find it on tumblr here!


	3. chapter 2 (Tony Forgets)

The next day, Tony makes eye contact with a cute girl in the hallway. She seems vaguely familiar, but he can’t place her.

“Hi, Tony,” she mumbles in passing.

“Hi?” He racks his brain for where she knows him from and comes up empty. How does she know his name?

At his response, she pauses and stares up at him, a look of exasperated surprise falling across her face.

“Oh,” she says quietly. She tilts her head slightly, staring at him for a long moment, then scrunches up her face and starts to walk off.

“What’s ‘oh’?” Tony asks, more than a little confused by the entire interaction.

“Nothing,” the girl tells him. “I need to get to class.” She makes to start walking again.

“Can I at least get your name?” Tony asks quickly.

“Violet.” 

With that, she hurries away before he can say anything else. He watches her go, not sure why it feels like he already knows her. He wants to find out.

* * *

Violet slides into her seat with a sigh. Her decision was made for her, then, and Tony’s forgotten her once more. Maybe it’s finally time to give up on him.

Except, he isn’t letting her do that, catching her in the halls and striking up short conversations, and then longer ones after school while they wait for their rides. It takes a week of him trying to get her to open up for her to snap.

“Why do you keep trying to be my friend?” Violet demands. She’s not sure why she’s upset about this, only that she is.

“Why don’t you want to be my friend?” Tony counters, and Violet pauses, letting the question sink in. She’d decided to give up on him, but this was the first time he’d come to her instead of vice versa. Maybe it was a sign she should keep trying?

“Violet?” Tony prompts her, and oh, right, she hadn’t answered him yet, had she?

“Sorry,” she tells him, and tries to come up with an answer that isn’t rude but also is a good reason to have been avoiding him. What comes out is “I’m tired of you forgetting me after you work out my identity.” 

* * *

“Identity?” Tony echos in a burst of startled laughter. What, like a superhero identity?

Violet responds by turning invisible. Just her, not her clothes, and only for a few seconds before she pops back into existence, eyes wide and darting like she’s about to bolt.

Apparently exactly like a superhero identity.

“Uh. You didn’t see anything?” she tries. Tony gives her a Look and she sighs, grabbing his wrist and pulling him into a nearby room.

She glares at him, leaning close as she hisses, “You aren’t going to _breathe_ another _syllable_ about this to _anyone_ , got it?” He nods. “I’m going to go home, and I will meet you tomorrow and answer your questions. You’re going to go to your work, and pretend everything’s normal, and I’ll text you where we’ll meet. Okay?”

He nods. He’s not sure why she felt the need to drag him in here to threaten him if she was just going to talk about it vaguely and quietly, but threat received loud and clear and he’s kind of terrified of what she might do if he doesn’t comply. 

She nods backs, lets go of him, and steps back.

“Wait!” he says. “I don’t have your number.” She can’t text him without his number.

Violet rolls her eyes and pulls out her phone. She taps something into it, and a few seconds later his phone dings.

**Violet:** You can’t seriously think that after all the times you’ve worked out my identity and then forgotten it you haven’t gotten my phone number before.

He looks back up at her and she quirks an eyebrow, half a smile pulling at her lips.

“You should probably leave now,” she advises, before slipping out of the room. He checks the time to see she’s definitely right, and hightails it out of the school.

* * *

Violet fidgets nervously as she waits for Tony to show up. She’d asked him to meet her at the park that generally didn’t have a lot of people there, hoping that’d ring true today, and now she’s standing near the front, crossing her fingers hoping nobody somehow found out and made Tony forget her again. He’s pretty good at keeping his word to her—excepting all the times he’d forgotten her, though those weren’t really his fault—but he’s upward of ten minutes late and approaching fifteen.

Just as she thinks this, he jogs into view.

“Hey!” he calls as he runs over. He slides to a stop in front of her and puts his hands on his knees, catching his breath. “Sorry I’m late. The guy taking over my shift was late and I had to cover for him until he arrived.”

“No worries!” Violet assures him, mentally shoving away her worries. “C’mon, let’s find somewhere with less people.”

They weave their way through the park until they come across a small playground, hidden behind a cluster of trees and creaky from disuse. The swings screech horribly as they both take one, but they drag their heels in the mulch and it stops quickly.

“Soooo…” Tony says. Violet studies her shoes. She can see him watching her in her peripheral, and hopes he doesn’t ask anything. Which is silly, since that’s what she brought him here to do, but she does anyway. “Wanna explain what happened yesterday?”

“Not particularly,” she admits. “But I said I’d answer any questions you had, and I do sort of owe it to you for being a jerk this time around, so.”

She pauses, thinking about how she wants to phrase this, but Tony speaks before she can. “ _This_ time around?”

“Oh.” She looks over at him. “Yeah. That. About that; you’ve forgotten who I am… I think it’s nine times now?” She mentally counts them up and nods. “Yeah, nine.”

“And each time, you— what? Reintroduced yourself to me? Over and over?” Violet nods. “Why not this time?”

Violet winces and looks back down at her shoes. “You said you couldn’t be with someone who couldn’t tell you the truth.”

“What?”

“About a month ago, Collin told you about how we’ve been dating off and on for a year, and you asked me about it since you only remembered knowing me for a week. I lied—it was a pretty terrible lie—and you broke up with me. And then last week you figured out my identity again, and forgot me, _again_ , and I thought maybe it was time to stop trying with you. But you kept approaching me, and here we are.”

* * *

Tony searches her face for— _something_ , though he’s not sure what. He knows she’s telling the truth, not only because of her disappearing act yesterday but also because her story just sounds _right_ , somehow. But still, she likes him enough to pursue him _eight times_? Wow. And she’d only stopped after a bad breakup—which, from the sound of it, does seem like a decision he would make in that situation, and as much as he wants to deny it he knows he’d probably make that decision again, though he still kind of wants to punch his past self in the face for breaking up with Violet.

He opens his mouth, not sure what he’s going to say, but what comes out is, “You know Collin?”

He immediately wants to stuff the words back in his mouth because _of course_ she knows Collin; she’d mentioned his name like they knew each other pretty well, and he’s sure after eight rounds together he’d have introduced her to his friends at some point. But thankfully she just laughs a bit and nods.

“Yeah, I’ve met all of them. It’s a good thing, too—let me run interference enough that none of them said anything about us being together longer than you knew. Well, until a month ago, at least.”

“What do they all think of our relationship?” Tony asks. “What do they think happens when it resets each time?” Isn’t that a thought; they’d been in a relationship before. Multiple times. (She’d said a minute ago that they’d been dating but something about him saying it makes it sound more like it’d happened.) He’d imagined it, a few times, but Violet had seemed so against even being friends that dating had seemed out of the question.

Violet laughs again. “Our friends are under the impression that we’re one of those couples who keep breaking up and getting back together. The breakup a month ago was the only fight we’ve ever actually had, but Ann’s commented more than once on what a rocky couple we are.”

“Wow,” Tony says. “How long have I been forgetting you, by the way? Because if it’s only been, like, a few months, then we must seem like a _really_ rocky couple.”

“A little over a year,” Violet supplies, and Tony sucks in a breath. He kind of figured it’d been a while, but a _year_. _Over_ a year. Wow.

* * *

“Wow,” Tony repeats. Violet huffs out a laugh.

“Yeah,” she agrees. “Wow.”

They sit in silence for a minute, Violet trying to think of something to say and failing. Tony screeches his swing and she snaps her head over to look at him and his racket. _Why would he do that to her poor ears?_

He looks like he regrets it too. (Good.) 

“So what now?”

“I… don’t know,” Violet admits, scrunching up her forehead as she thinks. She wants to say she wants to date him still, but what if he’s not interested in her like that this time? Then again, he _has_ been interested in her the past eight times, so this one probably wouldn’t be any different? Especially considering he kept pestering her to be his friend. But last time was the first time they’d had a fight, and he’d probably still been upset with her, and maybe that had affected his feelings towards her—she offers, “I’m willing to date you again, if you want to?” before she keeps overthinking this.

“Yes,” Tony agrees immediately, then seems to stop and think about it. Violet worries for a second he’s going to take it back, but he asks, “Before we actually go on a date, though, is it possible for me to get my memories back?”

“I don’t know that either,” Violet says. “I guess if it was, then Dicker would know—he’s the one who erased your memories each time.”

“ _Oh_ ,” Tony says, dislike evident in his tone.

Violet waves her hands in an X. “No, not like that—he’s just trying to protect Supers’ identities. He does it for everyone who spots a Super unmasked. You’re just more observant than most.” She smiles at him on the last sentence, and Tony blushes adorably, smiling back.

“Alright then,” he says. “Let’s go visit Dicker.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's a tumblr version if you want to reblog and make me smile!


	4. chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you decided to skip one of the chapter 2s available, don't worry! this chapter works with either version, and knowledge of both isn't necessary!

Violet knocks on Dicker’s door. Tony is absolutely not hiding behind her. He has no reason to hide behind her, and even if he _did—_ did have a reason, that is—he’s taller than her, so it wouldn’t even work. Hence, he’s not hiding behind her.

…Right.

“Come in,” a voice calls from behind the door.

The door creaks as Violet pulls it open, and Tony _jumps_ when she steps back into his chest. Violet sends him a weird look, and he smiles nervously. She rolls her eyes and goes inside, Tony hesitating half a second before following.

A tired looking, grey old man sits behind a desk covered with papers, vaguely familiar in a you-think-you’ve-seen-their-face-on-TV-before way. He glances up at them at them when they enter, then does a double take.

“Is there a way for me to get my memories back?” Tony asks before he can say anything.

The man—is this Dicker? He thinks this is probably Dicker— raises his eyebrows and looks at Violet. “He found out?”

Violet nods. “I explained everything, and he wants to get his erased memories back, if that’s possible?”

Dicker grunts. “You know we’ve got this machine _specifically_ to protect Supers’ identities, and you’re asking if we’ve got a way to reverse the effects of it?”

“Come _on_ , Dicker,” Violet groans. “I trust him, _and_ he’s gotten his memories taken nearly _ten_ times now; doesn’t this count as a special case? You don’t have anything for special cases?”

Dicker looks at them a long moment, and finally sighs. “Yeah. We do.”

He gets up and walks around them and out of the room, not waiting for them to follow. They hurry after him, and he leads them down a few hallways and into a dark room that looks like it should be used for interrogating, with dramatic lighting and a single wooden chair facing a table with some device behind it. It looks kind of like a projector? Tony doesn’t really know.

Violet starts to walk in, Tony behind her, but Dicker puts his hand out and stops her. Tony does a little _didn’t expect to be stopped, don’t run into Violet_ dance as he regains his balance.

“Best if you stay out here,” Dicker tells her, nodding at Tony to enter. He looks back at Violet, nerves blasting. She gives him a thumbs up and a smile that’s probably not supposed as anxious as it is, and he goes in.

“Sit.”

The chair is just as uncomfortable as it looked. Dicker fiddles with the possibly-a-projector while Tony shifts in his seat. He doesn’t really know what he’d hoped for, when he said he wanted his memories back. Maybe something like a true love’s kiss that breaks the “spell” put on him? Or for some Super with memory powers to come and tap him on the forehead and _poof_ , there’d be all his memories back? Certainly something different from this. Whatever this even is.

Should he ask? Tony bites his lip, debating. On the one hand, Dicker looks busy concentrating with the projector-thing and he doesn’t really want to interrupt that, and besides maybe it’s better not to know? But on the other hand, maybe knowing what’s going to happen would make him less nervous.

He opens his mouth, but before he can say anything something springs towards him. He flinches, which does nothing, and the something hits his forehead. His vision fuzzes to grey, and the last thing Tony registers is slumping forward onto the table in front of him.

—a scene familiar to the one he’d just been in—

—”I wish I could forget I ever saw her in that suit.”—

—“Did you forget?”—

—“I’m Violet Parr!”—

—the same thing, over and over—

—an empty stare followed by the girl slamming her forehead into the lockers—

—“But I’m looking for my girlfriend,”—

—“Sorry, kid, protocol’s protocol.”—

—a plunger hitting him in the forehead and he slumps over—

“Unhhh,” Tony groans as he sits back up. “My _head_.”

“Tony!” Violet calls from somewhere behind him, and she’s suddenly right beside him. “Are you okay?”

The sight of her brings back so many memories—a year’s worth of reintroductions, of falling for her again and again, of finding out her identity and restarting the cycle—and it’s making his head hurt to try and process, but he can’t help but beam at her.

“Fine,” he breathes, staring at this incredible girl who’d gone through being forgotten so many times, and still hadn’t given up on him. On impulse, he leans forward and kisses her.

* * *

Violet startles when Tony kisses her.

She’d been so scared when he’d fainted, and it’d felt like forever until he’d woken up (though it’d probably only been five minutes at the most), and what if Dicker had tricked them and just erased Tony’s memories again? That doesn’t sound like something he’d do, but there are pretty strict rules about Supers’ identities and this is directly violating most if not all of them.

Tony pulls away, looking guilty, and Violet realizes she hadn’t actually reacted at all to him kissing her.

“I’m so sorry, I should’ve asked first—“

Violet cuts him off by kissing him back, then draws back and grins at him.

“You’re fine. Welcome back, Tony.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can reblog this chapter and make me smile here!
> 
> if you've made it this far, thank you so much for reading! I hope you liked it!


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